Herennius Etruscus (A.D. 251) and Hostilian (A.D. 251)

Christopher J. FuhrmannUniversity of North Carolina

Herennius
EtruscusHostilian

As with many third century emperors, much of the extant material on
Trajan
Decius and his sons is late and unreliable. If the
Historia
Augusta ever included biographies for the Decii, they are now lost.
It is at least safe to say that Herennius Etruscus and his younger brother,
Hostillian, possessed a high pedigree. Their father, the emperor Decius,
was no military upstart, but hailed from a consular family based in Sirmium.
[[1]]

Herennius Etruscus was born in Pannonia sometime between 220 and 230,
and was thus old enough to do military service during his father's reign.
[[2]]
Judging by his boyish portrait on extant coins, Hostilian was considerably
younger. He remained in Rome with his mother, where they presumably sought
to ensure senatorial and popular loyalty to the regime. Whatever the difference
in their ages was, in the year 250
Decius
officially associated them in power by appointing them Caesars. [[3]]
The title "Prince of the Youth" (princeps iuventutis) may have initially
distinguished the elder son, but by 251 Hostilian was accorded the same
titular dignity.
[[4]] Nevertheless, Herennius
clearly overshadowed his younger brother. By the end of his reign, Decius
had elevated his son to the rank of Augustus, a distinction which Hostilian
never enjoyed while his father and brother lived. [[5]]Decius' alleged persecution of Christianity
attracted little notice outside of Christian circles, nor is there any
clear information connecting Herennius and Hostilian to these religious
policies.

In fact, concern over the precarious Danubian frontier dominated the
joint reign of Decius and his sons, to
such an extent that Decius sent Herennius
ahead to Illyricum very soon after he secured power. [[6]]
Following serious incursions into Dacia and Moesia by the Carpi and Goths,
Decius
and Herennius Etruscus led an expeditionary force against the Gothic king
Cniva. The barbarians were on their way to their homelands, laden with
booty after their successful campaigns, as the two sides met at Abrittus
(Hisarlak, near Razgrad in modern Bulgaria). Cniva was able to lure his
adversaries into a swampy area, and thereafter everything fell into place
for the Goths. Cniva broke his force into several tactical groups, surrounded
the Roman army, and nearly destroyed it. Herennius was struck down by an
arrow early in the battle. Trying to console his men, his father is said
to have remarked that the loss of but one soldier mattered little to him.
[[7]] Trebonianus Gallus' desperate efforts to salvage some remnant
of the expedition from the slaughter were insufficient to save the lives
of either Augustus.

Decius and Herennius Etruscus thus became
the first Roman emperors to be killed by foreign enemies in the field of
battle. The survivng men proclaimed Trebonianus Gallus emperor, even though
Decius'
young son Hostilian already held nominal power in Rome.
[[8]] This potential conflict resolved itself later that year when
a virulent outbreak of plague took the boy's life, and his mother (the
Augusta Herennia Etruscilla) was deposed. [[9]]

The reign of Decius and his sons is
usually perceived as one of the worst in a series of destructive turning
points heralding "the crisis of the third century." Yet despite his ill
fortune, the Latin sources look favorably upon Decius
as a paragon of traditional principles, and this warm reception applied
to his elder son as well. Eutropius claims father and son were both deified.
[[10]] Syme argued that the deaths of the third century Decii would
recall the ancient examples of the previous "'duo Decii' who at the interval
of a generation each immolated himself to secure victory for the Republic."
[[11]] Gibbon, finally, offered this obituary: "Such was the fate
of Decius . . . who, together with his son, has deserved to be compared,
both in life and death, with the brightest examples of ancient virtue."
[[12]]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alföldi, A. "The Crisis of the Empire," in The Cambridge Ancient
History XII, 2nd ed., 1939,pp.165-231.

[[3]] See, for example, CIL 2.4958, AE
1942/43, 55; ILS 515, 516, and 517 (= CIL 3.5988, 3.3746,
and 2.4957, respectively). The numismatic evidence throws little light
on official distinctions between the brothers; Hostilian is only sparsely
depicted in the coinage, and all but a few of his coins are from 251.

[[5]] All coins which refer to Hostilian as Augustus
were issued under his father's successor. See RIC 4.3, pp. 109-110
and 143. ILS 521 (= CIL 9.4056), a dedication to the Augusta
Herennia Cupressenia Etruscilla, includes the title "Mother of the Augusti"
(matri Augg.). The plural 'Augusti' must have been used for convenience's
sake.

[[6]] Victor, 29.2. Decius stayed behind to dedicate
the monuments he had constructed.

[[7]] Victor, 29.5. "detrimentum unius militis parum
videri sibi." For the Battle of Abrittus, see Wolfram, History of the
Goths, pp. 45-47.

[[8]] Gallus countered the expectations of many by
appointing Hostilian Augustus, and made his own son, Volusianus, Caesar.
See RIC 4.3, p. 151. According to Zosimus (1.25) Gallus adopted
Hostilian, but the same author also accuses Gallus of murdering the young
Augustus. On this point Zosimus' veracity is dubitable, since such political
murders were among the most hackneyed themes of Roman historiography.

[[9]] Victor, 30.2; Alföldi, CAH XII,
pp. 167-168.

[[10]] Eutropius, 9.4. No supporting evidence is
found for this particular assertion.

[[11]] Syme, p. 199.

[[12]] Gibbon, vol. I, chapter 10. An apparent echo
of the Historia Augusta, Divus Aurelianus 42.5-6, where the
author reviews all the good and bad emperors from Augustus to Diocletian.
He concludes, "So you see how few are the good princes . . . yet I must
except the Decii, whose life -- and death -- is worthy to be compared to
the ancients." (Vides, quaeso, quam pauci sint principes boni . . .
Tametsi Decios excerpere debeam, quorum et vita et mors veteribus comparanda
est).

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